To the Editor:
We are current and former student supervisors and managers writing to inform you that we believe that Brown Dining Services fails to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, Rhode Island General Law 28-12-3.2 and Brown University policy 40.030.
The FLSA states, “An employee who is required to remain on call on the employer’s premises is working while ‘on call.’” Rhode Island General Law 28-12-3.2 states, “An employer who requests or permits any employee to report for duty at the beginning of a work shift and does not furnish at least three hours work on that shift, shall pay the employee not less than three times the regular hourly rate.” The University policy 40.030 states, “When non-exempt employees are on-call and are required to remain on Brown’s premises, they are considered to be working and must be compensated.”
Per their respective supervisor and manager agreements, student supervisors and managers in the Blue Room, Carts and Cashiers units have been required to work on-call hours for years. These agreements all state that supervisors must “be at Brown to work in (their) unit for the entirety of the time that it is in operation” and detail the requirements for specific on-call hours which fall within the purview of the previously quoted regulations.
Brown Dining Services did not respond to a proposal created by Assistant General Manager Benjamin Potee ’19 last year to compensate employees for these hours. In the proposal, Potee showed that supervisors and managers in the Carts and Cashiers units work 358 to 635 hours on call each semester. Blue Room supervisors have testified they work 128 to 192 hours on call each semester.
We acknowledge and appreciate the efforts of the student management team to correct this issue in recent weeks.
However, because of the previous and ongoing lack of compensation for on-call hours, we believe that we have been significantly underpaid over the course of our tenure working for Brown Dining Services. We would like to discuss retroactive compensation and are open to hearing Brown Dining Services’ thoughts on this issue. Furthermore, we would like to ensure that Brown Dining Services’ policies are updated to be in compliance with these labor laws.
Alec Brown ’19, former cashiers supervisor
America Lopez ’18, former Blue Room unit manager
Amber York ’21, former cashiers supervisor
Benjamin Bosis ’19, former cashiers supervisor
Benjamin Ostrowski ’17, former cashiers supervisor
Blake Ashton Wilkinson ’18, former cashiers supervisor
Casey Kim ’17, former cashiers supervisor
Christina Nguyen ’19, former carts supervisor
Ivan Ip ’21, carts supervisor
Jonathan Coates ’20, former cashiers supervisor
Joseph Fleming ’20, cashiers supervisor
Joshua Danielson ’20, former Josiah’s supervisor
Justin Champeau ’19, former Blue Room assistant unit manager
Kyle Gray ’21, catering prep supervisor
Logan Brunet ’19, former carts supervisor
Lucas Smolcic Larson ’19, Blue Room supervisor
Mallissa Sirimoungkhons ’19, cashiers supervisor
Maxwell Kozlov ’20, former carts and cashiers unit manager
Michelle Bazile ’18.5, former cashiers supervisor
Neidin Hernandez ’19, cashiers supervisor
Taonelly Brea ’20, cashiers supervisor
Tyco Mera Evans ’20, former Blue Room supervisor
Will Portilla ’19, former cashiers supervisor
Zachary Farrias ’21, cashiers supervisor
